Ashutosh Mukherjee
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Sahasravachaspati Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee Saraswati, M.A, PhD, DSc, LLD,CIE, KT. was an Indian educationalist and Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta from 1906 to 1924. He was also responsible for the foundation of the Bengal Technical Institute in 1906 and the Calcutta University College of Science in 1914. He approached different people to raise funds for the establishment of the Calcutta University College of Science, which became the first and foremost institute of scientific education and research in the country.
He is credited with the establishment of Indian languages (like Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit) as serious academic discplines.
His proactive outlook to a holistic education system that encompassed cultivation of the liberal arts and well as a general development of a scientific temperament had ensured the status of the University of Calcutta as one of the premier academic institutions to the East of Suez. Scholars from all over India, irrespective of race, caste, and gender came to study and teach there. He had even persuaded European scholars to teach at his university.
Though the British did not share his views on colonial domination, they respected and admired his honesty, transparency and integrity.
The epitaph beneath his marble bust at the Ashutosh Museum of Arts at the University of Calcutta reads:
"His noblest achievement, surest of them all/ A place for his mother tongue --- in step mother's hall".